1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to software globalization verification testing. More particularly, the invention is directed to the automation of globalization verification testing procedures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
By way of background, globalization verification testing, or GVT, is a software internationalization procedure for verifying the integrity of software user interface controls whose text strings require translation from one language to another. For example, a user interface whose controls are initially developed to display English text may need to be translated to non-English languages for persons who do not speak English. The translation process frequently changes a control's text string formatting because the target language will invariably use a different number of words and/or characters to convey the same information. A user interface control that displays the seven-character word “Welcome” in English will thus become “Willkommen” in German and “Bienvenue” in French.
User interface controls whose text strings may require translation include such entities as frames, windows, buttons, tabs, labels, tool bars, menus, text entry forms, dialog boxes, error/status messages, tool tips, group boxes, tables, and other elements. Because such controls and their text strings are rendered using predefined geometry and character map information, the fact that a control may properly display a text string in one language does not mean that the same control will correctly display the text string after it has been translated to another language. Thus, text string translation can and often will result in formatting problems such as text corruption, concatenation, normalization, truncation, etc.
In the past, text string translation required that each user interface control in a software program under test be exposed, inspected for defects and verified for each translated language. This is a laborious and time-consuming task. GVT was developed to streamline the translation verification process. As part of GVT, instead of testing user interface controls after full translation to another language, a procedure known as mock or pseudo translation is performed. The pseudo translations are checked and verified to identify formatting problems that are likely to surface when the actual text string translations are subsequently performed. Only after pseudo translation testing is completed and all problems are resolved will the text strings be fully translated into different languages.
Pseudo translation preserves the readability of the original text string but adds additional formatting according to the anticipated size of the text string following translation to another language. According to one known technique, the original text is appended (or prepended) with additional placeholder characters, such as tildes, and the entire string is bracketed to signify that it has been pseudo translated. The text string “Enter” appearing on a button-style user interface control may thus be pseudo translated to “[Enter˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜˜]” if it is anticipated that “Enter,” a five character word in English, will be translated into another language that requires twenty characters. Another method of pseudo translation involves changing single-byte character codes to double-byte character codes, which are used to represent characters in many non-Western languages.
An advantage of a pseudo translation is that a person who speaks the same language used by the text string author, e.g., English, can perform GVT without having to learn another language. The GVT function may thus be performed relatively early in the development cycle by the software developer, or a co-worker of the developer, instead of shipping the product to another site (possibly in a foreign country) for verification after actual translation. This allows formatting errors detected by GVT to be corrected more quickly and at less cost.
Although GVT is an improvement over previous translation verification techniques based on actual translations, it is still a time consuming, repetitive task. Among other things, GVT requires the manual creation of test cases to check for different kinds of formatting errors according to the user interface control types being evaluated. For example, some user interface control types may need to be checked for text normalization, concatenation and corruption, while other control types need to be checked for each of these errors plus truncation. Creating a set of test cases for each user interface control of a software program requires a tester or engineer who is familiar with both GVT testing and the product that has been translated. This process takes considerable time and most of the effort involves tedious “cut-and-paste” operations insofar as similar tests are usually run on dozens if not hundreds of user interface controls.
Once a set of GVT test cases has been defined, the test cases must be implemented. Again, this is a manual process in which a human tester exposes and inspects each user interface control individually according to the subset of test cases defined for that control. The process is time consuming and subject to human error. GVT additionally requires that all defects detected while running test cases be documented. Documenting a defect requires that the defect be verified by reproducing it. The defect must then be logged (e.g., in defect tracking software) along with verification information such as the steps required to reproduce the defect and a screenshot showing the defect. Defect documentation may also involve information that helps the software developer fix the problem.
It is to improvements in the field of software GVT that the present invention is directed. What is particularly needed is an improved GVT technique that eliminates the time, expense and error associated with manually generating, executing and documenting GVT test cases on multiple user interface controls, and which introduces a greater degree of automation into the GVT process.